Some inventions are made faster than you can say serendipity. Penicillin, superglue, the microwave oven and the potato crisp were all discovered by accident. And suddenly we have an England one-day cricket team.

"Suddenly" might not be the right word because one-day international cricket has been played since 1971 and England have not won a global tournament in all that time.

But after almost four decades of pick'n'mixing, of sucking and seeing, of botching and fiddling, England have a one-day side that does look the part.

England went into this series without the injured Ryan Sidebottom, their best fast bowler for more than a year. The former captain Paul Collingwood had recently resigned and was unavailable anyway and Tim Ambrose, with just 10 diffident runs in five innings, needed replacing behind the stumps.

From these unpromising beginnings England have managed to put together a side to be reckoned with. South Africa, after the debacle at Trent Bridge, regrouped and prepared more intensely but were still outplayed by Kevin Pietersen's very confident-looking team.

How they must wish they were going to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy next month. Well, perhaps not. But it will be interesting to see how they get on in India in November. South Africa, remember, could have overtaken Australia at the top of the ODI table with a convincing victory in this series. And England were seventh as recently as July.

Pivotal in all this, as he is in the Test team, is the giant figure of Andrew Flintoff. Batting at five and coming on second change yesterday, he was central to everything England did, despite being "skulled" by Morne Morkel when he had made 39.

After successive scores of 78 at Headingley and here - he did not bat in Nottingham - Flintoff is thriving in his new responsibility with the bat. And the runs dry up when he and his mate Steve Harmison come on to bowl the middle overs.

This is only possible because Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad have bowled well with the new ball. But this England side appears to have plenty of options when things do go wrong.

There are eight bowlers to call on and that does not include Ian Bell. Everyone, including probably himself, seems to have forgotten that Bell can bowl.

There is real depth in the batting too, with the eye-catching Samit Patel, who took five wickets in only his fourth match, going in at seven followed by Luke Wright and Broad. Ideally, Patel would be the second spinner. But another twirler, such as Graeme Swann or Adil Rashid, could always be brought in for Wright if the conditions prompted.

Bell, his timing and placement making up for his lack of power, is developing a fruitful opening partnership with the normally more bellicose Matthew Prior and, even though he has not fired yet, Owais Shah looked a better bet at three than he did down the order. Then, after the dynamic duo of Pietersen and Flintoff, there is Collingwood to nurdle before Patel and the tail.

No one booed South Africa yesterday. Everyone realised that for the third time in a row they had been hopelessly outplayed. The booing on Tuesday was strange in any case. If your football team wins 6-0 do you boo their opponents? It is time, instead, to give this England side a cheer.